When I worked at United rentals we had a set up for gouging that was excellent. I've used the standard hook to your machine and connect your air hose type but this one came in a little grey box. It had a carbon rod holder that had different size ends for different size rod. It had a gauge that hooked to your oxygen bottle, and leads off the rod holder. One lead went to the positive terminal of a battery, the negative or striker plate laid wherever so you could strike the carbon rod on it to get it going. You would scratch the plate with the carbon rod, it would start to burn and then you could pull the trigger while gouging your metal. This was the most awesome thing I have seen, small kit which don't take up a bunch of room, no compressor needed cause you have an oxygen bottle anyhow. I usually had an old battery in the service truck that could power it up, but once it was lit that was it, you just went at it. I gouged out the center of a bucket pin with this thing on an excavator, it was a 4" pin 18-24" long. Apparently the guys renting the machine did not know what a grease gun was and seized the pin in the stick....after breaking the ears on the bucket because it oblonged the holes in the bucket so bad it became paper thin and broke. The carbon rods were pricey but man it was the cat's meow!
Anybody else seen this setup? I've searched the web but all I find is Airarc stuff. Thanks,
Shawn
I've never used one but I've seen them used before. We called them pin piercers because that's where they worked best. But do you ever have to cover yourself up when you use one this way. Leather coat, done up all the way to the top, leather gloves and with the cuffs taped shut. Extra eye protection and ear plugs, too. That stuff blows right back at ya. But you can take out a pin that would give you a lot of trouble with a torch. And quick. Saw one at an auction once and wish that I'd bought it. The rods for it are like air arc rods but hollow and I hear they're quite expensive. T.
Arcair has one of those. I believe they call it a "Slice Torch". It is a completely different operation from airarc.
thanks all, that's it for sure although the arcair looks a bit more fancy than the one I used. I guess I was just seeing the standard airarc gouging kit.
Arcair slice or the Broco ultrthermic system is what you are refering to. If my memory serves me correct they are more like sparklers cause once you light'em they keep on burning till they are totally consumed I have seen them in action but never used these typres of cutting apparatus.
Broco is the brand i've used,awsome tool for taking pins out. Like said above better cover up good or the sparks will get ya!!!!!
By J Hall 
Date 12-29-2008 03:21
Edited 12-29-2008 03:26
Arcair Slice, or Broco. But for gouging, a plain Arcair carbon arc is the cat's ass. Or a scarfing tip. You already have the torch, right?
Hello Shawn, all of the other folks have pretty much covered the unit that you were inquiring about. I would only add that it is commonly referred to as an "oxygen lance". It is generally not as "neat" as a carbon arc torch set-up when you are using it for gouging, yet it certainly has it's place and purpose. As a few of the others stated, they work really slick for removal of track pins and boom pins and other pin removal applications. You can either start them with the electric striker plate and battery set-up or you can use an oxy-fuel torch to get them started. The ones that I am familiar with use steel tubes that can also be filled with rods or in some cases they can simply use pipes. The principal of their operation is to bring the steel to it's kindling point by either using the battery connection and shorting the end of the rod to bring it up to the kindling point or an oxy-fuel torch to do the same and then applying the pure oxygen to intensify and maintain the "burn". Just my $.02. Best regards, Allan
You'd be amazed at what you can find once you know what the stuff is called, exothermic torch and wa-la!! Yahoo search turned up tons of stuff, Broco, Mag and others. Thanks again. I remember United buying the carbons for these things and seems like the 3/8" was around $150, not sure how many or how long though. I think we got our stuff through Parts Master so I don't know if they were high/low in comparison to others.
As Allan mentioned, steel pipe will work. A guy on another site used 1/8" pipe, oxygen and an electric welder to burn the key out of a forging hammer, this is just like burning out a pin. It was all just stuff He had on hand in His shop, nothing fancy.
